Does it ever feel like you’re a referee in your own home? One child is hurt, crying with scratches down their arm, and the other is standing there, looking defiant. In that moment, every instinct tells you to protect the “victim” and correct the “aggressor.” But what if I told you that by rushing in to assign blame, we might unknowingly be making the rivalry worse? It’s a tough pill to swallow, I know. It took me years to see how my attempts to protect my younger daughter, Pia, were actually fueling my older daughter, Esme’s fire and cementing them in their roles.
Today, I’m getting really honest about my own journey with my daughters' sibling relationship. I’ll share how I had to unlearn my instinct to take sides and instead learn to approach their conflicts with neutrality. We’ll talk about why the “aggressor” is often a child who is hurting and not a villain, and how building individual connection outside of the conflict is the real key to long-term peace.
In This Episode, You'll Learn:
👉 How to stop making sibling rivalry worse
👉 How to see the hurt, not the villain
👉 How to build connection outside the conflict
👉 Intervening with neutrality, not blame
👉 How your childhood affects their fights
👉 How to move from putting out fires to peace
As I mentioned, my sweet dad has recently passed away. Your continued listening and understanding mean the world to me. In his memory, and as promised, I wanted to share this episode from when he came on the show to discuss Connected Grandparenting with me. Thank you for your support during this time. I’ll be back soon!
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